SOLVING FOR EX Excerpt & Giveaway!
Hey readerfriends,
Today it’s my pleasure to bring you an excerpt from SOLVING FOR EX, the new YA contemporary romance from Leigh Ann Kopans. Earlier this year I read and very much enjoyed her first two novels, the sci-fi superhero romances ONE and TWO – and I can’t wait to read her first foray into contemp. If the excerpt (and the amazing cover) are any indication, it’ll be sweet, smart, and swoony-but-not-sappy. Bonus points for writing about mathletes, who’ve had a special place in my heart since Lindsay Weir first slouched onto my TV in her dad’s army jacket.
I’m the type of person who constantly got distracted in math class because I was drawing faces on my 9s and making up stories about a 7 running off with a rogue 8 her parents don’t approve of, so I won’t attempt a math pun here. Let’s get to it! (And don’t forget to sign up for the AWESOME book/swag giveaway down at the bottom of this post!)
First, here’s the blurb:
1 crush on your best friend +
1 gorgeous, scheming new girl +
1 Mathletics competition =
1 big mess
SIMPLIFY.
Ashley Price doesn’t have much in life after being bullied so hard she had to leave her old school to live with her aunt and uncle in Pittsburgh. But the camera she borrowed from her best friend and secret crush Brendan, and her off the charts math abilities, make things a lot more bearable. Plus, since Brendan is the captain, making the school Mathletes team should be easy.
But when gorgeous new girl Sofia rolls in and steals Brendan, Ashley’s place on the team, and her fragile foothold on the Mansfield Park Prep social totem pole, it’s on. Sofia is everything Ashley left her old school to escape. The only thing Ashley didn’t count on is Sofia’s sexy twin brother Vincent.
Vincent is not only the hottest boy in school, he’s charming, sweet, and he’s got his eye on Ashley. He’s also not taking no for an answer. There’s no real reason Ashley shouldn’t like Vincent, but with the battle lines being drawn between her and Sofia, Ashley’s not sure which side he’s on. Or which side she wants him to be on.
She does know Sofia is trouble with a capital T, and she’s determined to make Brendan see it.
SOLVING FOR EX is a YA contemporary romance that remixes Mansfield Park as Clueless meets Mean Girls in a crazy mix of high school society, mathletic competition, and teenage romance.
And here’s the excerpt: Meet Vincent
A cloud of cologne greeted me as soon as I stepped out of the classroom. I looked up, and there was Vincent, fiddling with a locker handle. He was having trouble with the thing, and I remembered how tricky the ones at Mansfield had seemed when I started here last winter. I paused for the briefest second, and then his eyes met mine. They were milk chocolaty brown with flecks of green, and had the thickest, darkest eyelashes I’d ever seen on a guy. They seemed to nearly touch his eyebrows when he looked at me.
Wow.
“Do you need some help with that?” I asked, my voice sounding way breathier than I intended.
“There’s a trick to them, isn’t there?” He grinned, and that dimple was…
Wow.
I reached over to grab the handle. He didn’t move at all, so now I was about half an inch from being pressed up next to him. I wiggled the handle side to side quickly, then wrenched it upward. Like clockwork, it popped open.
“Thanks,” he said, smiling down at me. I forced myself to break my gaze with him, and when he swung his bag up to rest it on the edge of the locker and started to stack his books inside, I saw it. A lacrosse patch, right there on his bag.
I hate lacrosse players.
The fact that lacrosse was as big at WHS as football was in a Texas town hadn’t helped my case back home. Carson had been the team captain, and everyone loved him. Breaking up the school’s poster couple by supposedly sleeping with Carson had only painted a target bigger than Texas on my back.
“Okay, well, I’ve gotta go.”
“Wait,” he said softly, smiling at me still. “I didn’t catch your name.”
“Ashley,” I mumbled, looking down at my shoes.
He stuck out his hand. “Ashley,” he said. “Pretty. It suits you.”
Holy hell, those eyes were convincing. I shook his hand, and when I started to pull back, he squeezed it the slightest bit, then let go.
“I’m Vincent,” he said. “Before you go…could you show me where the hockey field is?”
“You’re trying out, huh?”
“Yeah,” he said. “What’s the matter? Is that, like, a popularity death sentence here?” he laughed.
The look on my face must have been way too transparent. I forced a smile. “No…uh, no. It’s nothing.” This guy was not Carson, I reminded myself. This guy was cute, and new, and not Carson at all. Not even close. He pulled a baseball cap out of his locker and tugged it down over his mop of curls. I spent two seconds wondering why anyone would want to cover up such perfect hair. When I caught myself, I blushed, blinked hard, and brought out the smile again.
“It’s this way,” I said. “Come on. I’ll walk you out.”
***
I can’t wait to read the rest of this one! If you want a chance to win copies of the book plus some super-cute swag, sign up for the SOLVING FOR EX giveaway here:
And if you can’t wait, add it on Goodreads or pick it up now on Amazon or Barnes and Noble!
